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7ESL » Grammar » 200+ Examples of Uncountable Nouns in English

Parts of Speech 

200+ Examples of Uncountable Nouns in English Adjectives 

Last updated on November 14, 2023 by 7ESL Adverbs 

Nouns 
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Verbs 
Uncountable nouns like air, water, and information are commonly used within the English language and of course,
Verb Tenses 
there are rules involved with their use. It is important that you understand how to correctly use an uncountable
noun so that your sentences are properly formed and sound fluid. Pronouns 

In this article, we are going to be looking further into the subject of uncountable nouns and how they work. Learn Prepositions 
an extensive list of over 200 common uncountable nouns presented in alphabetical order with us now!
Articles 

Conjunctions 

Conditionals 

Reported Speech 

Collective Nouns 

Determiners
What is an Uncountable Noun?


Grammatical Errors 
Non-count Nouns List A – D
Grammar Rules 

Sentence 

Phrase 

Clause 

Active vs Passive Voice 

Countable nouns are common nouns that can take a plural, can combine with numerals or counting quantifiers,
and can take an indefinite article such as a or an. Examples of count nouns are book, orange, cat, animal, man…

The outside of an orange is bitter, but the inside is sweet.

A cat was basking on the window sill.

Uncountable Nouns are substances, concepts, materials, information… that we cannot divide into separate
elements. They can’t be counted.
For example, we cannot count “water“. We can count “a glass of water” or “a bottle of water” or “1 litre
of water“, but we cannot count “water” itself.

I immerse my clothes in the water.

Could I have a glass of water, please?

However, in daily life, as language adapts to the use of its users, uncountable nouns can be used in plural forms to
take on a different meaning. In this case, water can become waters, as in “I’d like three waters, please”, to indicate
that the speaker wants three servings/glasses of water.

Uncountable nouns can be further divided into several categories:

Materials and substances: water, rice, cement, gold, milk

Ideas and experiences: advice, information, progress, news, luck, fun, work
Abstract concepts: creativity, courage, honesty, knowledge
Collective nouns: equipment, furniture, luggage

Uncountable Nouns List A – Z

Below you can find a list of the most common non-count nouns in English. Some nouns are both countable and
uncountable. They have been put in bold.

Uncountable Nouns List: A – D

A

Advice Aggression Assistance Attention

Accommodation Advertising Air Athletics

Access Adulthood Alcohol Applause

Agriculture Atmosphere Anger Art

Absence Aid Arithmetic Age

Beauty Beef Bravery Business

Blood Botany Bacon Baggage

Ballet Butter Biology Beer

Bread Behaviour

Cake Cash Chaos Clothing

Confidence Compassion Calm Corruption

Courage Comprehension Cheese Currency

Carbon Cardboard Chalk Chess

Coal Commerce Confusion Cookery

Countryside Crockery Cutlery Chocolate

Content Cotton Childhood Coffee

Danger Data Dancing Democracy

Damage Darkness Determination Delight

Depression Driving Dignity Dessert

Design Dust Distribution Dirt

Duty

Uncountable Nouns List: E – H

E

Education Economics Equipment Earth

Expense Energy Electricity Enthusiasm

Environment Enjoyment Energy Envy

Evil Engineering Entertainment Evolution

Existence Ethics Evidence Employment

Experience

Failure Fire Fiction Fashion

Forgiveness Faith Flour Flu

Fear Fun Fame Freedom

Food Finance Fruit Fuel

Friendship Furniture Flesh

Gasoline Genetics Garbage Growth

Grief Grammar Garlic Gossip

Gold Gymnastics Glass Grass

Golf Gratitude Ground Guilt

Harm Hair Hardware Hydrogen

Help Happiness Health Hate

Hope Hospitality Homework Heat

Hatred Hunger Honey Humour

Honesty Height Housework History

Uncountable Nouns List: I – O

I

Ice Imagination Information Independence

Infrastructure Ice cream Importance Intelligence

Industry Irony Injustice Innocence

Iron Insurance Inflation

Judo
Jealousy
Jam
Jewellery
Joy
Juice
Justice

Kindness
Knowledge
Karate

Laughter Labour Lava Livestock

Luggage Lightning Land Leather

Linguistics Light Loneliness Lack

Litter Luck Love Leisure

Logic Literature

Machinery Mail Mankind Marriage

Money Magic Marble Mercy

Music Meat Management Mathematics

Moonlight Methane Milk Metal

Mayonnaise Mud Mist Motivation

Motherhood Measles

Nature
Nitrogen
Nutrition
Noise
News
Nonsense
Nurture

Obedience
Obesity
Oxygen
Oil

Uncountable Nouns List: P – Z

P

Paper Passion Poetry Parking

Pressure Perfume Physics Psychology

Peel Pepper Patience Permission

Peace Philosophy Plastic Progress

Production Pollution Pleasure Pork

Petrol Pronunciation Pride Policy

Purity Poverty Punctuation Power

Produce Protection Publicity Pasta

Pay Pain Painting

Quartz
Quality
Quantity

Reliability Rum Recreation Reality

Rubbish Revenge Racism Rice

Relief Respect Rain Relaxation

Research Religion

Salt Safety Salad Scaffolding

Soil Satisfaction Sand Satire

Security Sorrow Seafood Speed

Scenery Sewing Strength Space

Software Seaside Stream Stupidity

Shopping Stress Shame Spite

Steam Silence Sunshine Sleep

Status Success Soup Snow

Smoking Silver Symmetry Spaghetti

Spelling Soap Sport Stuff

Sugar Smoke

Tea Tolerance Thirst Technology

Trousers Tennis Trade Timber

Turbulence Toothpaste Time Traffic

Travel Toast Thunder Transportation

Trust Trouble Temperature

Understanding
Usage
Underwear
Unemployment
Unity

Violence
Veal
Validity
Vitality
Vinegar
Vision
Vegetation
Vegetarianism
Vengeance

Warmth Weight Whiskey Weather

Wildlife Water Welfare Wine

Wisdom Wood Wealth Wheat

Wool Width Work

Yoga
Youth
Yeast

Zoology
Zinc

Common Mistakes with Uncountable Nouns

Incorrect Pluralization
Uncountable nouns do not have a plural form, so it is essential to avoid using them with plural verbs or adding an
“s” at the end. Some common uncountable nouns include: accommodation, information, advice, behavior,
languages, furniture, health, and knowledge. Instead of writing “two luggages,” it is better to say “two pieces of
luggage.”

Misuse of Articles
Using the wrong articles with uncountable nouns can lead to mistakes. For instance, avoid using “a” or “an” before
uncountable nouns. Instead, use “some” when referring to an unspecified quantity of the uncountable noun. For
example, instead of saying “I’ll give you an advice,” say “I’ll give you some advice.”

Confusion with Countable Nouns

Certain nouns can be both countable and uncountable nouns, potentially causing confusion. For example, the
word “coffee” refers to the uncountable substance, more precisely expressing the idea with “some coffee.”
However, “coffee” can also be countable in the context of referring to a cup of coffee: “I’d like a coffee, please.” Be
cautious with these types of nouns and carefully consider if they should be used as countable or uncountable
nouns based on the context.

Ways to Make Uncountable Nouns Countable

There are several ways to express a measurable quantity for uncountable nouns. While uncountable nouns cannot
be converted directly into countable nouns, there are techniques to make them quantifiable.

Using measurement units: To quantify uncountable nouns, use suitable units of measurement. For example,
water, milk, and oil can be measured in liters or cups:

2 liters of water
1 cup of milk
500 milliliters of oil

Using containers or packaging: Use relevant containers or packages to count uncountable items such as sugar,
rice, or pasta:

1 bag of sugar
3 boxes of rice
2 packages of pasta

Using expressions of quantity: Apply expressions of quantity to make uncountable nouns countable. For
instance, implement terms like ‘a bit of,’ ‘a piece of’ or ‘a slice of’:

a bit of information
a piece of advice
a slice of bread

Nouns That Can be Both Countable and Uncountable

Some nouns in English can function as both countable and uncountable, depending on the context in which they
are used.

Hair is a prime example of a noun that can be both countable and uncountable. When referring to individual
strands, hair is countable:

I found three hairs on my sweater.

In contrast, when referring to hair in general, it is considered uncountable:

She has long, brown hair.

Another example is the noun room. When talking about specific places in a structure, such as a house or an
apartment, the noun is countable:

Their house has six rooms, including a living room, a kitchen, and four bedrooms.

However, when addressing the idea of space, the noun becomes uncountable:

There is not enough room in the closet for all their clothes.

A third example of a noun that can be both countable and uncountable is light. When referring to individual
sources of light, like lamps or light bulbs, it is countable:

There are five lights in the office.

On the other hand, when discussing light as an abstract concept or as a presence in the environment, it is
uncountable:

The sunlight filled the room with natural light.

Some other words that are both countable and uncountable:

Paper can be used as an uncountable noun to refer to the material in general, such as “I need to buy more
paper for the printer,” or as a countable noun to refer to a specific sheet or document, such as “She handed
in three papers for the project.”
Bread is typically an uncountable noun, but can be used as a countable noun when referring to different
types of bread, such as “She bought three different breads at the bakery: whole wheat, rye, and sourdough.”
Water is usually an uncountable noun, but can be made countable by adding a unit of measurement, such
as “a glass of water” or “two bottles of water.” When referring to varieties of water, such as those from
different sources, the plural form can be used, such as “We tasted the waters from three different springs.”
Fire can be used as an uncountable noun to refer to the natural phenomenon of combustion that produces
heat and light, such as “The fire was raging out of control,” or as a countable noun to refer to a specific
instance or occurrence of fire, such as “There were three small fires in the forest yesterday.”
Memory can be used as an uncountable noun to refer to the mental capacity to store and recall
information, such as “My memory is not as good as it used to be,” or as a countable noun to refer to a
specific instance or piece of information that has been stored in one’s mind, such as “She has fond
memories of her childhood.”

List of Uncountable Nouns | Pictures

List of Non-count Nouns E – H

Non-count Nouns List I – O

Examples of Non-count Nouns P – S

Non-count Nouns List S – Z

NOUNS: Useful Grammar Rules, List & Examples

English Nouns

Types of Nouns in English

Collective Nouns List

Possessive Nouns

Countable & Uncountable Nouns

List of Uncountable Nouns

Countable & Uncountable Food

Quantifiers with Countable & Uncountable Nouns

Articles with Countable & Uncountable Nouns

Nouns that Can Be Countable or Uncountable

List of Concrete Nouns

Abstract Nouns List

Regular Plural Nouns

Irregular Plural Nouns

Gender of Nouns

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Grammar

17 thoughts on “200+ Examples of Uncountable Nouns in English”

← Older Comments

Obi vivian
September 18, 2023 at 10:16 pm

I love this page

Reply

Joseph
March 10, 2022 at 6:01 am

Hey, just a quick point, you have misspelled jewelry, thanks!

Reply

Oscar.I
October 3, 2023 at 8:27 am

Hi Joseph!
Thank you for your observation, but “Jewellery” is correct.

Reply

Anonymous
October 15, 2023 at 6:49 pm

What is meaning of that

Reply

Nana
January 10, 2022 at 10:14 pm

There are some websites saying data are plura. It’s from greek and a singular form is datum. So this is
confusing me.

Reply

Piumi Shashikala
August 30, 2021 at 2:48 pm

Thank you so much. Really helpful!!!

Reply

Rita Gusella
June 12, 2021 at 8:46 am

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Reply

kamilget
March 6, 2021 at 8:21 pm

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Reply

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